Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-03-07
CATTLEMEN'S MEETING,
Eighth Annual Meeting Of The Braz o.
and Colorado CattIemeh's Asso.
citation Held at Abilene.
synopsis of the Proceedings-Speech Deli.
cred By Colonel X. *. Lege;t at tho
opentD & of the Meeting.
ABILENE, TEx., March 6. 1857.

meeting would be read with interest by
many in attendance at the cattlemen's
meeting on March S, at Fort Worth, we
condense the proceedings and give you
some OF the most important features of
the meeting.
only few of the large number of mem
bers were present. They were welcomed
in an eloquent address by X. X. Legett,
ESQ, of Abilene. His address was Or
dered to be published. The secretary ard
treasurer, Colonel S. p. Cum ingham,
then presented his annusl report, which
was unanimously adopted and ordered
published. After giving a statement of
the financial condition of the association,
the report reviewed the range cattle inter-
ests within the assCCiation's bounda-
ries as follows: ''Ia February, 1880, the
railroad had 10: penetrated your ranges,
neither had the barbed wire man or the
state land board iGterfCred with the ''open
cOmmOus;n the mesquite grass then was
more abundant, cattle fattened more
readily and herds increased more rapidly.
Yet with all these telling advantages,
beeves ara stool; cattle were no higher
than nov. Profits TO owners were greater
and the business apparently more secure.
change came IL 1881 and 1882. New
markets were opened; boom struck the
business. Stocks offered st SIS in 1880
and $40 per head early in 1881, sold,
range count, at $50 late in 1881 and a.
SS25 to $50 in 1882. The names of barons
and kings with the word cattle pretiXed
were given to all herd owners, and men
that g few wears before were content with
black coffee and fat bacon diet in their
dug-Outs were soon riding in palace cars,
visiting northern cities, swallowing cham
pagne and resorting to Hot Springs and
other famed health resorts, leaving cattle
kings ct the east and bankers in the west
to absorb not only all profits but in many
cases the herds. 1he good statesmen of
Texas, through undying love for the dear
school children, fastened their clutches
upon your interests, and by an unheard of
land board policy have nearly killed off
your cattle business and turn-d former
ranges in West Texas over to experiment
tai farmers. pause to ask what is the
result? Nay, go further and answer.
The cattle interests seriously injured ;
state revenue greatly decreased: West
Texas advertised throughout the north as
the home of poverty stricken, starving
people, with the state granting money to
iced the destitute, and the progress, pros
perity and upbuilding Of your country
thrown back ten years. While YOU, cat
tlemen, the pi 'neers that reclaimed it
from hostile Indians and rowing herds of
buffalo and antelope and first made it
possible for settlement, cannot receive
any lust recognition at the hands of Texas
lawmakers. Had you been fairly dealt
with, to-day range cattlemen OF Texas
would have been the means of adding
over 500, 1000, 900 to the taxable wealth OF
the state. Now, however, the very exist
ence of your cattle is imperiled through
exotic diseases, while your pockets have
been rified by adverse land legislation
There is no law in Texas to protect native
cattle from foreign diseases, nor can one
member of the present Legislature be
= found with influence sufficient to
give any relief to the cattle in
terests. The open sesame to politi-
cal preferment lies in other directions
abuse Of cOwmen and the COW interests
gather in votes. A few years in the fu-
ture, when the millions of Texas range
cattle shall have secured ranges in less
hostile lands, then too late will Texas
law makers regret the suicidal policy
which destroyed the second. greatest fac
tor IN Texas upDullulDS.'
The above extract from the report was
warmly spplauded. Resolutions offered
by D. f. White Of Colorado were adopted
IS follows:
Whereas, the present session of the
Texas Legislature is rapidly drawing to q
close, and to date there has been no &C
ton taken to guard the cattle interests OF
the state from the threatened and imml-
nent danger of the Introduction of exotic
cattle diseases; and
Whereas, the interests imperiled through
lack of sanitary legislation threaten uni
yersal quarantine by states purchasing of
Texas against our cattle traffic, unless
steps are taken to prevent cattle from in
feCted localities finding a Judgment in the
state; therefore
Be it resolved, that this association
firmly but urgently petitions the Tween
tieth Legislature now in assembly at Aus
TIN, TO at least clothe his Excellency,
Governor Ross, with power to order and
enforce quarantine restrictions against
nil cattle from states said to be infected
with contagious pleuro-pneumonia, rind-
erpest and foot and mouth diseases, and
also amend the stock laws Of the state so
as to provide severe penalties against
az aLh o4A B9ltAS DliAElhS INV Wis
state cattle from infected localities in
other states.
Resolved, that it is the sense of
this association that only by prompt
and effective legislation can any traffic
in cattle from Texas to the north
and west be continued during
this or in future years, as
the purchasers of our cattle in store
markets are outSpoken in their demands
that unless we guard against contagion
at home, they will in self defense be
compelled to estop Texas cattle from
their ranges.
Resolved, that the secretary of this
Association be instructed to st once
forward & copy of these resolutions TO
the President od the Senate and Speaker
of the House OF Representatives at
Austin, Tex, to be laid before their
respective assemblies.
Mr. T. J. Martin of Mitchell county
then offered the following resolutions,
which were unanimously adopted:
Whereas, the csttlemen of this associa-
ton hsd for a long time been III justly
charged abroad as having their ranges
within the splenic fever injecting area of
Texas, and
Whereas, through the active and untir-
ing efforts Of Colonel S. p. Cunningham
an agent of the L, IS. Bureau of Animsl
Industry are we Indebted for fair state
ment of the facts in the premises, b7
Ia,